Hospital Choice?

Michael,

You are so right about the difference for a family to have to actually stay in a city for an extended period of time...Baltimore would definately be alot cheaper than NYC...But regardless of the hospital you ultimately choose... I think if you can get an idea about the time frame you will need to be there, a great idea is to rent a furnished apartment/house. It will work out to be much less expensive per night...and you can also prepare and eat meals too...eating out gets expensive...

Karen

In case you didn't receive my message, I recomend Johns Hopkins. Baltimore is cheap and JH patients get a large discount at local hotels. It's a great hospital. It's Urology department is one of the top in the US and Dr. Schoenberg is very skilled. Nerve sparing surgery was first developed there as well. Let me know if you need more info.

Michael Greenberg

Ya Zach, your right, I think I'm jumping into everything I read and hear, I've read alot about SK and it seems to be state of the art! and from all the opinions here SK seems to hav a great reputation and is a place that is worth traveling to...traveling is a big decision for us, think its the best option with this type of surgery!!

I need to relax a bit...quote from my dad

Newbie, your criteria should be based on more than a satisfied customer from seven years ago. Your choice of hospitals should be based on the fact that they specialize in a certain procedure and that--in the case of bladder cancer--they do a lot of them.

That being said, I just looked at their bladder cancer page ( www.humc.com/cancer_center/conditionDetail.php?id=00022 ) and they certainly seem competent at what they do, so if Sloan Kettering is not in the cards for your father, I'm sure they'll do a fine job. But Sloan Kettering would definitely be my first choice.

Best of luck to you and your father.

Thanks for ye're opinions, really appreciate it!

I got an email from someone who had a cystectomy 7 years ago in Hackensack Hospital which was a success and life is good for them now, I want my dads to be that succesful!! I'm waiting for my dads doc to send us his records and write up a recommendation to send to S/K, hopefully wont take too long...so anxious to get a 2nd opinion

i agree about s/k (which is ranked #1)..its your life !! dont settle for less
peter